The final day

Friday was our last full day in dreamland. As usual the sun woke us early, and its efforts to raise us from slumber were well supported by powerful winds that actually shifted the floor beneath us. After a bacon and eggs breakfast I took Jedi for a run to the gate, in a deathly head wind that challenged my very flimsy commitment to exercise, a commitment already dented by the night's boozy activities.

My run completed, we cleansed the previous day's misdeeds from ourselves, tidied around the house and headed out for a scenic drive. We drove up from the sole of Yorke Peninsula's geographic foot and headed west towards the big toenail, marked by a lighthouse. There we let Jedi have a bit of a run around on the beach in the shadow of the lighthouse before deciding our own beaches were better and heading home. We decided to use the last of the day's light to enjoy our own cove, and took a picnic blanket and a bottle of French sauvignon blanc with us. We sipped and watched Jedi bounce around in bliss until the sun disappeared behind the walled cove. Clambering up the hill back to the house for a final time, I recall a twinge of sadness as I gazed over our stunning beach view, and at that point I committed to return.

After rinsing away sand under the great outdoor heated shower, we finished the French SB before opening another, this time a Margaret River. The night progressed as the others did, with a delicious dinner of lightly marinated pork loin chops and balsamic vinegar roasted vegetables.

Thursday's highlights - lunch

Another day with very little achieved, and it was wonderful. It was a cool day, but the sun was out and strong, so Jedi and I took the opportunity to beach bash at the private cove. I ran through my forms and other TKD techniques while Jedi tested his bravery against the buffeting waves. The water was cold but tolerable, and I tried to coax Jedi into a walk around the rocks bounding the cove, but he was smarter than me and left me to discover a massive sea cave only metres from the sand. Intrigued, I sloshed to the cave entrance through knee-deep water, and just as I stepped to the threshold I plunged into a submerged depression. I didn't heed this warning and instead clambered into the cave, which stretched back about 10 metres into solid rock. As the waves ran up about half way into the cave I realised that a single freak wave of any substance would cause me certain death, and quickly made my escape, swimming over the depression and back to my very concerned dog.

With this minor excitement out of the way I clambered back up to the house and we promptly headed into Marion Bay for lunch at the Marion Bay Tavern. We had a table under a pavilion in the beer garden, so Jedi joined us as we enjoyed a gourmet pub lunch. Bec had an amazing Burmese kofta curry, with the koftas made from local seafood including crab, scallop and fish. I had an equally fabulous steak topped with Morton Bay bugtails. The steak was tender and richly flavoured, and the bug itself had a delicious nutty sweetness to it. Highly recommend lunch there if you're ever in those parts.

The rest of the afternoon was lost in sun, wine and relaxation; I did a lot of damage to my book, Shantaram, and Bec shared her time between reading and writing. Still satisfied from lunch we had a low-key dinner of left over risotto, and whiled away the dark hours with a few episodes of Lost.

Wednesday

I had to put some thought into what day it was; it's a sign of a properly relaxing holiday when you struggle to define one day from the next. There were also a few wines, beers and G&Ts consumed yesterday, so excuse me if I miss any critical details.

The day started as always with Bec getting up to read while I stayed in bed ostensibly to enjoy the sunrise but actually enjoying the view of my eyelids. After breakfast and coffee (this place is FULLY decked out, including a Breville espresso maker) we took Jedi for a run up to the gate. He was still stuffed from the previous day, but managed to find the resolve to run from side to side ahead of us, bounding through the barley crop.

After showers and some reading time and after a snack-lunch of dips and toasted sandwiches I decided the sun was sufficiently over the yardarm and cracked a Pale. Ignoring the beautiful day outside I also tucked into episodes of Family Guy. It got progressively funnier with beers, and after 4 episodes and three Pales it was again time to enjoy the day. We decided to return to a beach we'd seen from the top of a ridge when clambering back from yet another beach on Tuesday. Jedi has become quite an adept mountain dog and scrambled down to the beach and was was resting in a rock pool before we even hit the ground. We sat around watching him have fun, thundering through the water and burying sticks in the loose sand. After a bit of a clamber over more rocky outcrops to see if yet more beaches were in reach we decided it was time to call it a day - and following my additional two beers on the beach, I was more than ready.

That said, I still found myself tempted to try out another goat track to a small beach we spied on the way back. I headed down and called Jedi to come with me, but he was either too smart or too tired to follow. But obviously he lost sight of Bec and decided to follow me as I trampled across a small, rocky beach looking out onto an outcrop about 100m offshore, inviting me to swim to it. Remembering my experience in San Sebastian - and the 5 beers in my belly - I instead tried to find an easy path out, but again Jedi left me and quickly found a much more direct and safe path, beating me back to the house and smiling at me from the deck as I panted my way home.

Too tired to bother showering we both changed into trackie dacks and got on the side deck with our books. It wasn't long until the sun demanded we open a light red, from Marinda Park in Victoria's Mornington Peninsula. As the sun's warmth faded, we moved inside and tackled dinner, a chicken, capsicum and mushroom risotto, and it rocked. With the light red quickly demolished we moved onto the big guns - a 2004 Zema Estate Shiraz. This Coonawarra beast is a favourite of ours, and it remains so - still big and blustery, but with elegant hints of age revealing the classic cigar box and understory characters, still overlaid with the subtle, peppery sweetness of Coonawarra fruit. It was magnificent.

Satisfied with food and wine we polished off yet more episodes of Lost, and polished ourselves off with an ill-advised gin and soda before both falling asleep on the couch.

Another day in paradise

Excuse the Phil Collins reference, but it had to be said. We're also technically ("I don't know what you mean by 'technically...'") on day three of paradise, but my report refers to day two.

Anyhoo, after an early night Bec was up and about early-ish but me, being the lazy sod I am, lay in bed fully intending to watch the sun rise (the main BR looks over the sea towards Kangaroo Island) but instead slept like the dead in a coma.

When I finally dragged my lazy carcass out of bed we decided to find the 'private beach' that had eluded us in the fading light of Monday evening. We were surprised by our own stupidity as the directions given to us by Yondah's proprietors were more or less accurate. After clambering down a bit of a goat track improved marginally by rudimentary steps we found ourselves on a little cove with towering cliff faces on either side and a beautiful view of Kangaroo Island interrupted only by massive rocks jutting out of the ocean. Jedi nearly exploded at his first sight of beach this journey and wasted no time getting into the water. Bec and I on the other hand had some exercise to catch up on, so while she lunged, stretched and flexed I went through all my tae kwon do techniques and patterns. I also managed a very brief swim, but the water was frickin' cold and I got out before Bec would be forced to question my gender (very briefly, the cove is very private, and my torn shorts were obstructing my technique. Nothing more need be said). Back at the ranch, I enjoyed the luxury of a solar-heated outdoor shower before changing into exercise clothes and taking Jedi for a run to Yondah's main gate. I nearly did myself an injury by trying to extend the run around a paddock that bounds the property and promptly rolled my ankle AND got a bug in my eye. Retreating to the safety of the track I finished of the run, and for each kilometre I ran, Jedi ran at least four, diving through the crop like a dog posessed. Quite handy really, since the emerging barley rid his belly of sand and water from our earlier beach wanderings.

After my second shower for the day I settled into the formalities of the day - reading. I am well and truly engrossed in Shantaram at the moment and, despite the apparent egotistical and arrogant nature of the author, I am stunned at the lyricism, wisdom and beauty in this book. On the flipside of my literary absorption, Bec was busily creating rather than consuming, hammering away at her most recent novel. She is nearing the end and it seems to have inspired her.

As darkness began to ascend, beers were opened and wines were cracked. Aside from a few Pales for me we enjoyed a Margaret River Riesling and a fantastic Killakanoon Cabernet - The Kellerman's Run. We managed three episodes of Lost and a casual dinner (gourmet mixed grill) before both falling asleep on the couch.

It's now 4:30pm the following day but I should be enjoying my book and mu beer rather than typing so I'll update you again tomorrow.

Adventures over Yondah

It's a long way removed from Vietnam, Cambodia or Western Europe, but that doesn't mean we're having any less fun. We're about 350km from Adelaide at a self-contained holiday house called Yondah, 20km east of Marion Bay on SA's Yorke Peninsula.

We're here for a deliberately different holiday, one that we can share with our favourite son, Jedi. And he's already had so much fun that as I type, at about 1:45pm on a Tuesday, he's fast asleep on his ridiculously comfortable-looking dog bed.

A bit about Yondah to start: Bec found it through the Facebook updates and photos from her friend Yvette who stayed here about a year ago. Apart from the stunning photos, the place came highly recommended as somewhere to get away with doing as little as possible. So far, that's what we've done.

We left Adelaide around midday and apart from the using tailgaiting idiots and slow drivers, the journey was uneventful, but beautiful. Rounding the apex of the gulf about 20 minutes out of Port Wakefield gives you a taste of what you're in for the further you travel; crystal-clear, still waters, gently rolling hills lush with traditional South Australian scrub or positively bursting with healthy crops (Cooper's get their malting barley from this part of the world). As we got closer to our destination, the towns become ever smaller but more appealing, often with two pubs within a road's width of each other. The local tennis club in one of these tiny hamlets was proudly sponsored by the above-mentioned Cooper's, the sponsor sign saying "proud sponsors of the Port Pirie tennis club" - about 150km away by my guess...

Moving off the main roads we took a long, straight and well maintained dirt road for about 20km and turned left at the second of only two intersections before we'd otherwise crash into the sea. We'd been warned that the sign subtly indicating Yondah had been moved due to road works, and if it weren't for Bec's timely comment that bins should be out we would have driven straight past. But disaster averted, we arrived at the Yondah gate and I was given the task of retrieving keys from a combination-locked box at the gate. I had my usual hopeless fumble with the farmer's lock and wire combination (a sad indictment for someone having grown up on a farm 200km north from where we are now) and we trecked onto what would be our private road for coming days. Driving through yet more healthy crop along another well maintained road, we came to a rise, at the other side of which we saw what we'd come for - the most amazing view of ocean, cliffs, a naturally wild but beautiful garden and an enormous roof covering Yondah's open-plan kitchen, dining and living room, bathroom, three bedrooms and three decks. As we unpacked and began divining for the way to the beach, we noticed far to our south the blurred outline of Kangaroo Island.

The afternoon was cool, but Jedi was keen to explore, so we went hunting for the beach. We quickly realised that although it was close, it was accessible only to goats, or via a very specific path. Relinquishing a polar-style swim, we instead walked along sand dunes masquerading as ridges overlooking stunning vistas of rocky cliff faces, ocean, sky and the beauty of green paddocks. We walked for long enough that we lost track of time and turned back only when my concerns about descending darkness became strong.

Although these fears were unfounded (thank God for spring and, shortly, daylight savings), we returned to the comfort of the household and sat on the side deck enjoying the last of the sun. It wasn't long until the glory of the surrounds demanded a drink be enjoyed with them, and I turned to my trusty Cooper's Pale Ale and Bec had a Mercury Artisan Cider. It would be remiss of me to not comment on beverages in these pages, so I must say that the Artisan is the only cider that comes close to an imported number such as the invincible Magners. My Cooper's was as good as always, savoured at the end of a hard day's bludge.

Of course the next critical element of any George and Bec holiday is food, so as we had our first drinks we also enjoyed a very tasty green olive dip from Jaegger's (sp?) in the Central Markets. That and the first drink simply whetted our appetites, so we got to work on the old favourite for a cold holiday's night, roast chicken. We were grateful for having accidentally picked up a marinated Lillydale chook firstly because it rocked and secondly because it made life so much easier. With very little effort the chook was thrown in the oven, and pumpkin, potatoes and onions followed. Yondah's kindly proprietors had good old Mitani Chicken Salt in the cupboard, so that gave the spuds the extra lift needed (of course chicken fat on its own wasn't enough...).

Anyhow, getting to the point, dinner was delicious and enjoyed with a bottle of Margaret River Semillion. Satisfied and weary, we sat with our wines and watched a few episodes of Lost, catching up on season 3 before tackling the brain-bending season four.

Now it's Tuesday 2pm and I could report on the morning's activities, but given they contain gratuitous nudity and silliness I might leave it for Bec to report.

Cheers